Battleborn Made Gearbox Think 'a Little Different' About Borderlands 3

By Matt Purslow

Working on Battleborn helped Gearbox think “a little different”, which enabled the developer to make a better game with Borderlands 3.

Talking to Metro, Borderlands 3’s art director, Scott Kester, spoke about the gap between Borderlands 2 and 3, and how creating Battleborn allowed the team to refresh themselves. “We didn’t want to [make another Borderlands game after Borderlands 2], we needed a break,” he said. “Because if we didn’t have a break I think we wouldn’t have made something as good.

From Battleborn to Borderlands 3

“By the grace of the beautiful 2K they allowed us to say, ‘Hey, we want to try this Battleborn thing, we just want to kind of reset our palette, we’re gonna try this thing’,” he continued. “And we did it and… you know, if we didn’t make that game Borderlands 3 wouldn’t be as good as it is now. It made us think about things a little different.”

Battleborn was a stumbling point for Gearbox, receiving mixed critical response and proving a commercial disappointment. While Kester didn’t elaborate on what the different method of thinking adopted for Borderlands 3 was, it seems like it has done the trick; reception to Borderlands 3 has been much more energetic, and the game looks to be on track to be at least a larger success story than Battleborn. Check out our Borderlands 3 preview from E3 2019 to see just what it’s getting right.

Borderlands 3 Release Date, Platforms

For more Borderlands, check out everything we know about Borderlands 3, and the Gearbox devs breaking down the secrets of the Borderlands 3 E3 trailer. Borderlands 3 has a release date of September 13, 2019 and is being released as a PC game, a PS4 game and an Xbox One game.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter.